Did you know that it’s nearly Halloween? I’m only telling you because I definitely wouldn’t have any idea unless every game under the sun (or foreboding, fog-enshrouded moon, as it were) was running some kind of Halloween event. But these things can actually be decently fun when handled well, and this one, especially, is quite noteworthy given that it may well end up one of the final things that Redigit himself adds to Terraria. So then, what’s in it? What indeed.

No, I’m not actually going to do that to you. Goodie bags and themed pets and tiles and items and things! Also, a mysterious Pumpkin Moon event. Sweet, sweet trick-or-treat deets below.

“The Halloween event is officially live! Most monsters in the world will now have a chance to drop Goodie Bags that are filled with fun surprises! There is also now a Pumpkin Moon Event that can be triggered in hardmode that has increasingly difficult waves with better loot based on how long you last. The Halloween in game event will last until November 10th.”

On top of that, multiple common enemies will now appear in costume, which sounds magnificently dumb and adorable. This update also comes with the disappointing revelation that “mice can no longer spawn in hell,” which pretty much nixes my upcoming machinima film A Terrarian Tale: Fievel Goes To Hell. I, for one, am heartbroken.

It’s a pretty substantial update right off the back of 1.2’s bucket-busting goodie load, though. I can’t rightly complain about that. Go grab it now, and never forget: the scariest costume of all… is your own true nature. No, wait, sorry: it’s twerking George Bush. (Kudos to this awful thing for suggesting that one.)

Not true. Last year DayZ proposed a Christmassy “jesus abilities” patch. Fans were outraged by the game breaking ability to spawn 5000 fish and pepsi cans and the “wait three days to resurrect your dead character” function.

Well, im pretty sure what the OP meant was that most games only celebrate chirstian events rather than say ramadhan or hannukah. I wouldn’t call it propaganda but i myself would like to see other holidays, religious or otherwise, being involved in the gaming scene, but thats just me.

I wouldn’t call it propaganda but i myself would like to see other holidays, religious or otherwise, being involved in the gaming scene, but thats just me.

Hmm, I guess. Not really a big deal to me — however, I *would* like to see games made by people who celebrated other holidays, who came from different cultures, who weren’t young white American males. And I think if we got that, then you’d get your non-“western” holidays too. :)

Well assault is your word, I’m just curious why this is happening; was it Steam sales that triggered it or? I’m fairly sure it predates Minecraft but the practice just sort of went viral in a fairly short space of time. I was curious how and why.

I’m atheist as well and I’m not bothered or anything (ever so slightly suspicious of its merits, perhaps) but it does strike me as odd to see many videogames doing this and playing on these Christian/religious themes/holidays/motifs. I know Halloween wasn’t originally religious, however by that measure neither is Christmas or Easter – except they clearly are, now (apologies to pagans reading this).

I guess it’s just something that caught on with some devs, especially since digital distribution (auto updating) allowed for everything from game crossovers to holiday-themed updates and surprise zombies. And it’s a way to lure people back after significant updates (apparently) it’s just that if I were a game developer, making my game observe a religious holiday wouldn’t cross my mind. I’m not saying it’s bad or anything, a lot of people presumably enjoy or are amused by this sort of thing, but it’s rather less self-evident than Michael Anson makes it out to be for videogames to do this, I think.

I think it’s pretty simple – Christmas and Halloween are western cultural events where people spend money on things they may not otherwise in celebration of the event. By having a themed version of your game to tie into that celebration, you increase the chance of people giving you money.

however by that measure neither is Christmas or Easter – except they clearly are, now (apologies to pagans reading this).

I disagree with that, actually. Here (northern Europe), neither of those are particularly “religious” to most people. Honestly, Christmas is more about Santa than Jesus, and more about presents and lots and lots of good food, than about faith. And the way most people celebrate Easter, it’s more about letting the small children in the family hunt down chocolate eggs, and having delicious lunch with your family. Many people who celebrate these two holidays do not see them as religious at all. Some do, sure, and apparently you do, but I don’t, and most people I know of, don’t.

Which again jives with what I said before: most games celebrate Christmas by having snow and Santa-themed hats and presents – not by talking about Jesus and three wise men. Games typically celebrate Easter by having bunnies and chocolate eggs, not by putting crucifixions in the game. Few games celebrate Easter and Christmas as *religious* holidays. They celebrate them as cultural touchstones, something everyone knows and can relate to.

In any case, nearly all big games are made by Americans or Europeans, white males from a largely Christian/agnostic culture. We don’t see many games being made by buddhists, so buddhist culture and traditions aren’t often portrayed in games.

You’re speaking from a fairly limited perspective. Christmas and Halloween events don’t just ‘predate Minecraft,’ and it hasn’t ‘recently gone viral’, they’ve been a part of online games since the 90s, and before that, well, online gaming wasn’t what it is.

It isn’t complicated – as someone else said, most games are made by and for demographic that is primarily Western middle-to-upper class white males from Christian or secular cultural backgrounds. And in those countries and populations, Christmas and Halloween are goofy, commercial, fun celebrations. Even if you’re not part of that demographic, if you’re in the English speaking world, chances are you’re familiar with or have participated in festivities in some way.

Most of the “Christian propaganda feasts” have their origin in other religions. Halloween is based off of a number of pagan feasts, the most famous being Samhain, which was a feast where offerings were given to the fae by the Gaelic peoples to ensure the survival of their livestock. Other “Christian feasts” with a decidedly non-Christian origin include Easter and Christmas, which were both moved from their original dates to make it easier for Pagans to be converted (the idea being that, if they thought they were already observing Christian holidays, it would make it easier for them to accept Christ).

That said, these holidays have been observed in huge portions of the world for centuries. Their observance has been a huge cultural touchstone around the world, and frequently have more to do with being of European or Mediterranean in origin more than with being “Christian.” The idea of throwing out everything given to us by our culture, simply because we don’t believe in any minor religious trappings, is ridiculous; our history and culture as European people of an Abrahamic religious background has given us just about everything we enjoy today. It would be like refusing to learn our own history because “it isn’t relevant to today’s world” – oh, wait, you already did that, didn’t you?

Grrrr. They’ve messed about with the mechanics of getting biome chest keys so you have to kill all previous hardmode bosses plus Plantera to make the keys. I can’t even kill The Twins – how am I meant to get those Vampire Knives now -_- ………. I could always hack them in but that would be just WRONG.

Would love to…. unfortunately, I have the unenviable position of living with scrappy broadband, due to living out in the boonies of Cork in Ireland – if I were living in the city, I’d be less trepidatious. Could try it to see how badly I lag…

1) I always read Redigit as Regedit, and imagine that is somehow the method by which the game is updated.
2) I really, really can’t get into Terraria, and none of the mods that might make it easier/more fun/weirder work anymore since the recent patches. Grump.

I feel this pain also. The game didn’t get updated for a long time and mods got made. Then the game got updated and the mods broke. I can’t get into the vanilla game again, and I’ve already played the modded game. So I’ve ended up not playing it again. Oh well.